


Supply Needs

by ilyena_sylph, Merfilly



Category: Star Wars - All Media Types, Star Wars: The Clone Wars (2008) - All Media Types
Genre: Alien Biology, Gen, Slice of Life
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-01-08
Updated: 2017-01-08
Packaged: 2018-09-15 17:17:32
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,595
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/9247604
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ilyena_sylph/pseuds/ilyena_sylph, https://archiveofourown.org/users/Merfilly/pseuds/Merfilly
Summary: Anakin overhears a conversation between his Captain and his padawan that leaves him a little upset. But not at her.





	

**Author's Note:**

> This is what happens when we ponder things like biology and the fact that neither Anakin nor Ahsoka had a choice.

Ahsoka shifted a little; the briefing had lasted a pretty long time, and she was a little light-headed. She could use the Force to abate that, and did, much as she had been doing for a few weeks now. 

Somehow, Rex either caught a glimpse of it, or his empathy was kicking him hard, because the captain reached into a pouch and pulled out a granola bar. "Care for some, kid?"

"It's plant matter. It will make me sick at best," she told him honestly, so as to not hurt his feelings for refusing when they'd been working on getting to know each other. "But thank you."

"You're welcome," said even as Rex frowned a little and asked, half-idly, as he considered what he knew about their shipboard rations and didn't like what he was coming up with, "any vegetable matter do that to you?" as Anakin turned around from five meters away and looked at the back of his padawan's head. 

"It's no big deal, Rexter," Ahsoka said, keeping her voice low. "But yeah. I can get by with some plant proteins, but even those tend to upset my stomach a little."

Rex frowned, looking down at her, and entirely deliberately pitches his voice to 'General-pay-attention-to-me'. "Commander... I do know how our rations are set up. If you can't have starches, you're not getting enough to eat."

Ahsoka shook her head, denying the problem. "I'm half the size of you men; I get my share." Which was a complete fib, but she figured she'd be able to get some jerky the next time they hit the Temple... whenever that was. She really didn't want to make waves.

Anakin -- who was already listening thank you! -- heard that and shook his head as he headed over to come up alongside them both, frowning down at his padawan (his Snips, who wasn't taking care of herself). Within a half-meter, he said, "No, you're not. Come on, we're going to go talk to the quartermaster." That it'd give him time in a turbolift with his not-taking-care-of-herself-padawan was a bonus. 

Rex saw the cringe more clearly than Anakin, the flash of something like fear, before she bolstered herself.

"Really, Master, I'm okay; no need to break away from everything!"

Anakin caught the edge of it, caught it _more_ in that response, and had a flashing moment of hating most of everything in the galaxy at her looking like that, and he shifted around to look at her full on, at that 'no I'm okay everything's fine' body language and bright voice (and the thinner lines of her face, just a little but enough to see). He shook his head, lifting his left hand lightly to her shoulder. "We've got a minute, Ahsoka," as he was thinking about what he was carrying, did he have... "How do you do with these?" palming a pack of the nut mix he generally stuck in his Master's hand out of its spot in a sleeve. 

"Not terribly?" She reached out and accepted them, but didn't immediately start eating; she did not want him thinking she was starving. She moved to walk with him. "I really don't want to be a bother, Master. I can get by."

Anakin nodded relief that that stash, at least, would work for her, and answered her comment as they headed to the turbolift last part first. "You're pretty good at that, so I'm sure you could. That doesn't mean you have to." Once the doors shut, he turned to look at his padawan/student/ responsibility/little-sibling, frowning as he dropped to a crouch to look straight at her big blue eyes, worried. "Why didn't you tell me? Don't you know what long-term hunger will do to you?"

Ahsoka looked down, away from his disappointment, afraid of how quickly that might turn to a strike against her when he hadn't wanted her anyway. "I was going to raid my stash if we ever went back to the Temple, Skyguy. I know we're on rations so that we can be certain everyone gets enough to eat between supply runs, or in case the supply lines break."

"Yeah, we are," Anakin agreed, watching her looking down and seeing a faint ghost-echo of himself -- but why would she think like that, she'd been raised in the Temple, she shouldn't -- "but nobody _told me_ you had different nutritional needs, Ahsoka. The rations are supposed to keep us healthy, not -- not leave you hungry, for kriff's sake. It's _not okay_ that you're not getting what you need." 

She looked up at him, seeing something in his face that **hurt** her, and she blurted out, "I didn't want to be one more problem when you didn't even have a choice about me coming, and then you accepted me anyway, and I just.... wanted to be sure you didn't change your mind."

Anakin took a deep breath at her sudden honesty, the quick fast fall of words that were so much like him, like everything he hadn't said to Obi-Wan when he was young and some of the things he had, and understanding and sympathy slammed like an entire tank landing on him in his mind. "...oh, _Snips_. I... I understand that. Better than you might think. But you're my padawan now, I'm not letting them have you back. And that means taking care of you, okay?"

Ahsoka let out a breath, her body language uncurling from the tension she'd held for too long. "Okay, Skyguy." She looked down again, then up with a shy smile. "Jerky. It's my best friend. Nearly any kind. I usually kept it around, but I didn't have time to grab my stash when Master Yoda told me I needed to be ready to ship out."

Anakin nodded, seeing as she relaxed, and he reached out to tug very lightly at one long strand of beads, corner of his mouth quirking in response to her smile. "I hear that. I generally have a little stuck around; guess I'll have to make sure I've got more than that on hand -- and _not_ hand you the fruit leather I keep around for my Master, since it won't agree with you. Does anybody make energy bars that work for you? I mean, surely _somebody_ in the galaxy does, but I've never had reason to look for pure meat ones..."

Ahsoka grinned a bit more. "Oh yeah. There's bars and shakes that are made with pure animal proteins. Master Ti introduced me to them after the first time I went to Shili with her." She moved and gave him one of her free-spirited hugs. "I really didn't want to give you any kind of trouble, Master. I've managed to hunt small animals on both the last campaigns to supplement my rations." That explained why she hadn't been immediately in sight a few times.

Anakin hugged her back, pulling her in with a careful hand high on her montrals and the other low around her back, considering finding whoever had been supposed to be taking care of her in the Temple and seeing how far they might sail from a decent kick. That she was so worried, could sound so much like him, when she'd grown up in the Temple, supposedly safe... "Okay, good, so we should be able to send for a supply for you easily enough," he replied to that first bit, before shifting to make sure he had his gaze locked with hers, that she was paying attention to him. "You getting sick, or tired too easy, or anything else because you didn't _tell me_ shipboard rations were half-starving you is **way** more trouble than just asking the quartermaster to shift what you're getting, Snips."

She worried at her lip with a sharp incisor, then nodded slowly. "I think I prefer to have jerky, then, because I find I can share that? The other stuff, most humans don't like the flavor, and I am going to **hate** having something the boys don't get." She loved their men, her huge new clan of warriors that kept teaching her things the Temple hadn't deemed necessary.

"No problem there," Anakin agreed, brushing his fingers over her beads. "We lay in some of the others -- in your quarters, if nothing else, so that if you need something fast you've got it -- but I agree with you about wanting to share with them." 

"Okay, Skyguy." She straightened fully, standing tall and proud; she had the best master, had known this would be perfect... as long as she didn't screw up. She knew she could be difficult; even Master Plo got exasperated with her from time to time and he had all the patience.

Anakin straightened up beside her, letting her out of his hold before the turbolift opened again, glad to see her steadying out so quick, and marshaling what he was going to need to tell the quartermaster to get this fixed -- the **haran** his padawan was going to go without what she needed as long as he was breathing. He had enough problems with his Master failing to take care of himself.

And he might just have to have a long talk with someone, possibly Master Yoda himself, about putting her in the position of being afraid to talk to him about something so basic. While he was at it, maybe Master Ti needed to be asked a few questions too, so he didn't run amiss with any other Togruta-related issues.

Snips was his, and that meant he would take care of her… no matter what.


End file.
